Kayla Race
PEOPLE

Kayla Race

Associate
race.kayla@dorsey.com

Overview

KAYLA ADVISES CLIENTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL, ENERGY, AND NATURAL RESOURCES REGULATORY COMPLIANCE AND PROJECT DEVELOPMENT.

Kayla assists clients in a variety of industries with their environmental, energy, natural resources, land use, and sustainability matters. This includes helping energy and natural resources clients, among others, navigate compliance with state and federal environmental regulations, electric utility laws, land use policies, public disclosure requirements, and mineral leasing and permitting rules. Kayla also provides support on contractual matters, environmental due diligence, and other project development needs.

Kayla’s career as an attorney is aided by her experience shaping municipal and state climate, energy, and environmental justice policy in her work prior to law school for community-based environmental non-profit organizations in southern California and for the Massachusetts House of Representatives Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change. In particular, Kayla draws from her experience advising the City of San Diego on the development of its Climate Action Plan as a member (appointed by the City Council) of the City’s Economic and Environmental Sustainability Task Force. She also served as a member of the Regional Energy Working Group for the San Diego Association of Governments and participated in the Port of San Diego’s climate committee and environmental advisory committee. Kayla also represented an environmental justice non-profit in intervening in a California Public Utilities Commission energy efficiency proceeding, which earned an intervenor compensation award for substantive contributions to the Commission’s decision.

Kayla’s law practice is further benefitted by her experiences during law school as an intern for the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of the Solicitor and for the Salt Lake City Attorney’s Office, as a law student clerk for a national non-profit environmental law organization and for a local law firm, and as research fellow for the University of Utah’s Stegner Center for Land, Resources, and the Environment.

Education & Admissions

University of Utah, S. J. Quinney College of Law (J.D., 2020), Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law, Highest Honors, Order of the Coif, Utah Law Review Editor-in-Chief

Middlebury College (B.A., 2008), cum laude

Admissions

  • Utah

Clerkships

  • Utah Supreme Court, Justice John Pearce, 2020-2021

Experience

Representative Work

  • Advised electric utility on Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rules, Energy Information Administration rules, state laws, and federal statutes including the Federal Power Act and the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, on matters relating to electricity generation, wholesale power purchasing, distribution, energy storage (including molten salt), and wholesale transmission (including rights of first refusal to construct and operate transmission infrastructure)
  • Helped electric utility company draft comments on U.S. EPA proposed rule pertaining to Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards under the Clean Air Act
  • Assisted utility company with state public utilities commission electricity rate case testimony drafting and filing
  • Advised pumped hydro energy storage developer on rules pertaining to licensing and permitting by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and state environmental agencies
  • Advised clients in the agricultural and forestry industries on guidance on voluntary carbon credits generation and sales and federal tax credits for carbon sequestration
  • Interpreted power plant owner’s contractual obligations and rights pertaining to plant's sale, closure, and fuel supply
  • Advised renewable energy developer on its contractual and easement rights and obligations relating to the construction and operation of generation interconnect (gen-tie) infrastructure
  • Supported renewable energy developers and other types of developers in contractual and land use issues, including split-estate issues
  • Researched and interpreted Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act regulatory amendments and litigation status in support of clients in multiple industries
  • Drafted environmental risks disclosures in SEC filings for clients in multiple industries, including mining and housing development
  • Drafted environmental service contracts for clients in multiple industries
  • Assisted clients in multiple industries address potential water and soil contamination and respond to enforcement actions by state agencies
  • Supported clients’ environmental due diligence for potential purchases of various types of businesses, including a waste facility, medical device manufacturer, and gold mines
  • Advised multiple mining clients on their obligations and rights under private and federal mineral leases relating to royalties, rights of first refusal, and other issues
  • Advised mining clients on federal laws and regulations governing the acquisition of new and amended federal mineral leases
  • Advised pro bono urban farming client on municipal land use ordinances

News & Resources

Legal Writings

  • A Perfect Storm: Environmental Justice & Air Quality Impacts of Offshore Oil & Gas Development in the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf, 38 UCLA J. ENVTL. L. & POL’Y 105 (2020)
  • A Tale of Two Portlands: How Port Cities Can Survive Dormant Commerce Clause Challenges to Fossil Fuel Shipping Restrictions, 26 UC HASTINGS ENVTL. L. J. 81 (2020) (Second Prize, American Planning Association, Planning and Law Division’s 36th Annual Smith-Babcock-Williams Student Writing Competition)
  • John Ruple & Kayla Race, Measuring the NEPA Litigation Burden, 50 ENVTL. L. 479 (2020)

Accolades

     Pro Bono 50 Hours 2022

  • Contributed more than 50+ Challenge pro bono hours, 2022
Kayla Race